With the advent of the Internet and a decline in computer prices, many people are communicating with one another through computers interconnected by networks. A number of different communications programs have been developed to facilitate such communications between computer users. These programs typically have a user interface that contains representations of a user's contacts (i.e., other users who are connected to the network with whom the user of the program can communicate). A user may invoke communications with a particular contact by selecting a representation of that contact that is maintained in the communications program's user interface. Similarly, the user may select a contact's representation to cause other actions to be executed with respect to the contact (e.g., set an alert to let the user know when the contact is online).